When You Love Someone
by Samsonwentbacktobed
Summary: Fifteen years after Edward left Bella in New Moon, he discovers a new chance at love and incentives to take it.
1. Chapter 1

When You Love Someone

Chapter One

**Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING.**

Jasper

None of us wanted to start school again, so when Emmett suggested we ditch our first day of high school in our new home of Brunswick, Maine, I was quick to spread the bad feelings around so everyone would agree with him. No one knew I had made them feel that way.

No one knew Alice had told me to.

Why she gave me the order I could never guess. All I knew was that she made a HUGE show of being pissed off, saying she had picked out the perfect outfit for the school day and was not about to miss the chance to wear it just because of our laziness. So she had stormed out the next day, gone to the first day of school and come back later quiet as a church mouse.

She hasn't said a single word.

For five days.

Carlisle diagnosed her behavior as passive aggressive, but he doesn't know her the way I do. I know that she is brewing, ticking like a clock under the surface. Something is not right…at least not right in her world. Which means something isn't right in my world either. That's why I have been hovering over her all day. She can't shake me no matter how hard she tries, and that, really, is the part that kills me: the fact that she's trying.

"Why can't you go talk Edward into visiting us like I asked?" she accuses me in exasperation as I follow her into the kitchen of all places. She's opening drawers and cabinets like she's looking for something, yet she manages to keep an unhappy glare on me all the while.

"I did call him," I tell her. "He says he'll stop by on his way to Alaska. I already told you this, Sugar Lips."

Usually my nicknames for her make her giggle, but this evening she is in no mood. This evening she scowls, wrenches open the refrigerator, and shoves a plastic bag of freshly cleaned leaves at me.

"At least make yourself useful," she tells me confused expression.

"Alice…?"

"It's for the salad."

"What salad?"

"The one I need to complement my chicken Alfredo," she says and, as she speaks, pours chopped chicken –already grilled –into a pan already sizzling with butter.

When did she buy this food? When had she prepped it? I mean, the leaves are already washed and dried, and the chicken has been previously seasoned and grilled. And then there is, of course, the big question: what do vampires need with food?

"Jasper," she sort of hisses my name. "Help me or leave, but don't stare at me. Not like that."

"What have you done?"

My question deflates her. She leans across the marble counter she handpicked with Esme mere weeks ago and puts her hands to her face trying to hide from me. I can feel the tension roiling off of her to crash into me, and it doesn't feel good. I feel sick, like everything inside of me is rising in my throat, pushing against my body, begging to burst out.

"I found someone," Alice finally says. She's looking at me through her fingers like she's afraid to face me.

"Who? What?"

"I found a…a girl, and I invited her to dinner tonight."

"Did you invite her to dinner," I ask, making a distinction, "or did you invite her for dinner?"

"Jasper," there she goes hissing my name again. She gets up from the counter and pushes past me to grab the garlic she made only God knows when. How did a house of six vampires not smell any of this stuff cooking? I swear, sometimes Alice scares me. She is the only one who really, truly can.

But I have bigger worries right now.

"Why are you just now telling me about this?"

"I don't know!" But she says it sarcastically, as if the answer is obvious and I am just stupid for not figuring it out. "Maybe I didn't tell you –any of you –because I knew you would all act like this! A freak out."

"This isn't like you," I squint, trying to make some sense of the irrational way my adorable wife is behaving. "You know it's a bad idea to spring a human on a bunch of vampires, yet you're doing it anyway? Alice," I touch her arm to keep her from moving, "don't you remember what happened the last time I was in a house with a human?"

"Oh, Jasper," she finally looks at me, and her eyes are tinted red as if she was crying, and maybe she would be crying right now, if she could. She throws her arms around me fiercely and buries her head deep in my chest.

"You don't know how long I have carried this around with me," she whispers. "You don't know how long I have known and had to wait for the right time."

"The right time for what? Alice, you're not making any sense…" and now I'm catching the revelation. Could it be? No way. Alice wouldn't…yes, she would.

"Alice, is this about Bella?"

Like an alarm has gone off, Alice moves away from me faster than I can blink. She's on the opposite side of the kitchen now, chopping garlic cloves, and I know I've hit a nerve, struck the nail right on the head.

"My God, Alice."

"I know."

"We agreed to stay out of this."

"I know! I know!"

"It's bad enough you want to see her, but to bring Edward here to see her too? That's sick, Sweetie. You know how bad he's been since we…since I…"

Christ. Fifteen years later and I still can't bear to remember the night I attacked Bella, my almost sister. That is how I think of her, the one way none of the others would ever imagine I love her. I love Bella as my Almost Sister and not a day has gone by that I haven't wished, for all my tough talk of staying away, that I could see her again. If nothing else, I wish I could apologize. I have already apologized to Edward…several times, in fact...and he says he forgives me but he hasn't really looked at me since that day. Despite myself, I'm wondering if maybe Alice doesn't have the right idea after all. Sure it's been a while, but maybe simply seeing Bella and knowing she's okay will be enough to pull Edward out of his hatred of me and back into his long life.

Eternity is an awfully long time to be depressed.

"Bella isn't coming," Alice pops my bubble and at the same time sends me spiraling on a new roller coaster of questions.

"She's not?" I frown at a complete loss. "Then who is?"

"Oh, Jasper," she sighs and turns away from me to stare out the window at the gathering twilight, at the twisting driveway where our guest will emerge at any moment. "I can't see the end of this. I keep trying so hard. I've been trying for weeks to see the end of this, but I can't. I'm afraid we've made a terrible, terrible mistake."

"Doing what?"

"Leaving Bella," she nods firmly. I can see the expression on her face mirrored by the window. "It was a mistake. That I can see. That I see clearer than ever."


	2. Chapter 2

When You Love Someone

Chapter Two

"And how do you know this chick again, Bella?" Mason, my twin brother, asks me as we climb the s-shaped driveway to get to the mansion matching the address scribbled prettily across the paper in my hand.

"I told you!" I roll my eyes at him as he made me repeat the story for the umpteenth time. As usual, he doesn't trust me to make a sensible decision which is heinous. Absolutely heinous. My judgment is so perfect, I'm more infallible than the pope himself!

"Her name is Alice Cullen, okay?" I go over the story again just to get him off my back. "We met during Mr. Lombard's class and, when we got talking, she invited me over for dinner. Just me, by the way. She never said anything about you tagging along."

"Why were you talking during a class?"

"Oh, my God! You are such a prude!"

"I'm not the one failing Calculus."

"I'm not failing Mr. Lombard's Calculus class," I pointedly correct him, withering him with my stare until he physically shivers from the poison of it. "I'm getting a C minus, far from failing."

"Far from success, too."

"Well, who can be successful with a twin brother who is perfect at everything? Can't you slack off just once? Please? There has got to be something I'm better at than you."

"Don't hold your breath."

We exchange smirks at that because we both know we can hold our breaths for a good hour each, far longer than anyone else we know and freakish if ever said aloud. So, we've kept the secret to ourselves along with all the other disturbing traits we share such as the way everyone thinks we use special shimmer lotion in the summertime when, really, the crystal-like glow is somehow embedded in our skin. Oopsies. We never mention that or the way I can text messages in people's minds, or the way Mason can erase them.

And we never under any circumstances confess to anyone, not even each other, the real reason our pets continuously die on us, and of the same mysterious illness, too. Whatever it is, it drains them somehow of blood.

"It's supposed to rain today," Mason is saying, "so tell your friend we can't stay long."

"Her name is Alice, and I'll stay as long as she wants me to. If you don't like it, tough. Nobody invited you in the first place."

"Bella, do you not see that these people live on top of a creek? If it rains over here, the street below us will flood in seconds, we won't be able to get home, and then I'll be the one who has to explain it to Jennifer the way I always have to explain your messes to Jennifer."

"Jennifer is our fairy godmother; she never gets mad at us. You need to chill, Mason."

"Bella, I mean it. We'll stay here an hour. That's it. Bella, do you hear me?"

"Hi, Alice!" I squeal and wrap the girl who answers the door in a tight hug as if we're the best of friends. I did it only to shut my brother up, knowing I could because of the positive way people have been responding to me my whole life –eager to be my friend and overly receptive of any attention I throw their way –but the way Alice grips me makes me freeze, caught off guard. For a second, I can swear she knows me…but that's impossible, so I let go and step inside her house the way she invites me to do.

"This is my brother," I motion to Mason just as he is in the middle of running his fingers through his fluffy bronze hair the same color as mine, nothing that can come out of a bottle though plenty of our friends (and enemies) have tried.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," he coats on the charm as he takes the hand Alice extends to him. She doesn't swoon at the sweep of his dark brown eyes or fall into a fit of giggles at his manners, and I am impressed. I have never until now see a girl endure my brother this way or look at him the way Alice is. Her face is the expression of someone reunited with a long lost brother…or son…Actually, I can't place it at all. I don't know what is going on with Alice.

"Ah, well, this is my mother, Esme," Alice introduces us to the woman standing in the entrance to what I guess is the kitchen judging by the direction of the chicken Alfredo scent. The woman looks fit to cry as she takes in the sight of Mason and me. She has a hand to her mouth and her lips are trembling.

What is with these people?

"This is my father, Carlisle."

"Hello," the man is the first one to speak to us though he, too, looks at us strangely, unprepared. "How do you do?"

Better than you.

"Fine, thanks," Mason takes the responsibility of replying even as he shoots me a triumphant look because he was right. The Cullens are total weirdoes.

"This is my sister Rosalie," Alice continues the introductions, landing now on the most gorgeous girl I have ever seen though her eyes on Mason and I are large and disbelieving; another unexplainably weird reaction.

Okay…

"No frigging way," exhales the guy next to her. "No way, Man. No way!"

"My brother," Alice explains his significance, "Emmett, my boyfriend/foster brother, Jasper, and, last but certainly not least, my brother Edward."

I jump when my eyes land on Edward.

Because he looks just like the boy holding the hand I don't realize I have reached out toward him…

…the boy also known as my twin brother, Mason.

"No way!" I find myself whispering the same phrase as Emmett, staring first at Edward then at Mason and back again.

And I'm not the only one.

I realize with a jolt that everyone in the room is doing it, too, and jumping with a start once they realize that the only thing truly distinguishing the two apart is the fact that Mason is a little smaller than Edward (Edward must be a little older than us). That's it. Other than that, Mason and I look startlingly identical to this man, right down to the yellowish colored eyes.

"Hum!" Mason clears his throat to end the spell we all seem to have fallen under. "I'm Mason Charles Swan, and this is my sister," he nods to me and I smile of cue, "Isabella Renee Swan. Thanks for inviting us for dinner. We should probably get started with the evening now, if you don't mind. I think there is going to be some rain, and neither Bella nor I want to give our godmother any reason to worry about us."

"Of course not," Alice nods. "We'll eat in the living room where we can all relax while we talk. You can go in there now. Jasper? Take them please."

"This way," her boyfriend/foster brother (remind me to gag over this later) speaks for the first time, and walks away into another room.

"You first," Mason chuckles, apparently refusing to move until I do, and only winced when I punch him in the ribs for sacrificing me.

Edward

I don't know what to think.

In fifteen seconds, everything I have been running from has come back to haunt me in the form of two children: Mason Charles…and Isabella.

Isabella. Isabella. Isabella.

The name runs rampant through my mind. The girl is such a carbon copy of my Bella, I know there is no mistaking her origins. This is Bella's daughter, making Mason Bella's son, and if that hair color doesn't lie…

"Please tell me that you did not leave that girl knowing she was pregnant," Carlisle begs me the moment we have all (minus Jasper, naturally) gathered in the kitchen to assemble the plates. One look at him tells me immediately he knows it, too.

These are my children.

Mason Charles is my son, and Isabella Renee is my daughter.

I am a father. I am something I have always wanted to be yet have never once dared hope to be, and it is all because of my Bella. Here she goes again, saving my life.

"Edward, please answer me!" Carlisle looks to be on the verge of hysteria. "Did you know anything about this?"

"Nothing," I answer and my family breathes a collective sigh of relief. No one wants to think badly of me, but I can't help but think badly of myself the longer I take in what has happened.

My children are around fifteen years old –they must be. That means they have gone fifteen years without their father; fifteen years without my love and my support. How have they been getting along? They mentioned something about a godmother, but who would that be? I cannot even begin to guess.

"They don't know about…anything," Alice assures us softly, guiltily because this is her fault. She found them first, has known about them for heaven knows how long, yet we all got to find out like this. How did I miss this? Something this huge must have been on her mind constantly, yet I haven't been bothering to use my gift for years, haven't been concerned about anyone other than myself and my self-inflicted exile.

"I met them on my first day of school, the day all of you ditched. They are both incredibly smart. Isabella Renee was breezing through her freshman algebra class so now she's in AP Calculus with me…but it isn't going so well. She could use a tutor. What do you say, Edward? You could tutor her easily."

"And where is their mother, I wonder?" I silence them all with my question, the one I can hear them all thinking yet they're too afraid to voice it. "If the stories are true about things like this, about births such as Mason and Isabella's…."

"If the stories are true, Bella is gone from us," Carlisle finished the difficult sentence for me. "Quite gone from us, in fact."

"Do you think she suffered, Carlisle?" Esme looks helpless as she clutches at his shoulder, and he looks helpless as he answers her in honesty.

"Inevitably so, I'm afraid –if the stories are true, that is. Keep an open mind, Everyone. We don't know what's been going on here. Remember that. Bella could be alive or, even, not alive. We do not know."

"But we should find out," Emmett's words are more of a command than a suggestion. Whatever we decide, he himself has already made up his mind about the matter. "Seriously, you guys. The kids are here right now. I say, we pump them for all the information we can get."

"And at what point," Rosalie contradicts him, "do we tell them that the seventeen year old vampire named Edward is their father? Come on, Emmett. Be serious. Simply inviting them here was a mistake."

"Don't say that!" Alice hisses, furious. "The mistake was leaving Bella in the first place! These kids may be the only piece of her we have left, and I will not lose them. I…I can't lose them. Can't we try to work all this out? Please?"

"Say something, Edward," Carlisle finally remembers me. "You're their father. You decide."

"I want to tell them everything," I confess, and my family gapes at me in shock. This is not what I am supposed to be saying. "I want to tell them the truth about whom and what I am and all that was between Bella and me. I want to be honest starting right now."


	3. Chapter 3

When You Love Someone

Chapter Three

Isabella Renee

I can't stop looking at Edward.

It's as if my eyes are glued to him and every single movement he makes from the way he rolls his shoulders –mysteriously identical to the way Mason rolls his own shoulders when he's nervous –to the way he can't stop looking at me.

As if his eyes are glued to mine.

He's staring at Mason, too, but my brother is too absorbed in the chicken Alfredo to notice but, to be fair, Mason wouldn't have noticed even if there wasn't any food to distract him. His abnormal strength makes him aloof because he figures he can take on anyone that challenges him—and he can. So he doesn't notice little things that send me wondering, little things like the way Edward reached for my hand the moment he sat down and has yet to let it go, or little things like the way none of the Cullens have so much as glanced at the food Mason and I are eating. Don't they eat? Why would Alice invite us over for dinner if she herself isn't hungry?

"How long have you two lived in town?" Emmett asks. "And who are you staying with?"

"Bella and I have lived in town for, what?" Mason checks with me. "Has it been ten years yet?"

"No, it's been eleven years," I correct him, angry that he has forgotten one of my most vivid memories.

So I show it to him: us as children running up the blue porch stairs of the home we hadn't known then we would be sharing with Jennifer even now, years later. Arms that smelled floral, like freesia almost, wrapping around us as a voice like a bell tells us to be good for Jennifer, be good little kids for Jennifer, and I'll be back. I'll come back. Just be good…

"Mommy," Mason places the voice I have played in his head, and I nearly cry when he says the word. He sounds like he's four year old all over again. "She left us here eleven years ago. That's right. I forgot."

"Your mother is alive?" Edward's stare is inescapable now, so are the stares of everyone else in the room.

Wtf?

Why are they so thirsty for information? It's not like they knew my mom or anything. And then I realize I'm only angry because they are asking the question that still haunts me, that keeps me crying at night.

Is my mother alive?

Most kids can answer that question, but the truth is Mason and I honestly don't know. We only have a few surviving pictures of our mother locked in our memories, and even those we swap all the time to keep the details right.

We remember her face the day we were born: the sweat on her brow, the veins pressed so tightly against her skin they tattooed a web across her body, the hand that shook when it touched us where someone had lain us next to her, her lips that felt cold when she kissed us, and her smile that pronounced us beautiful at first sight.

We remember her watching someone else give us baths in a sink from where she sat in her special chair, surrounded by blankets and shivering all the time. But she always smiled at us, always told us she loved us.

And, lastly, I remember her the day she left us. Mason, apparently does not, but I do. I can see her clearly as ever in her black jeans and blue blouse, clutching that big white purse she had begun to carry around because it was the only thing big enough to fit all her pills. Her hair was cut short that day, but I don't remember why she cut it. I remember Grandma Renee crying over it and I remember Mason and I taking hold of the shorn tresses and making fake mustaches out of them –and I remember Mommy thinking we were funny –but I don't remember why she cut her hair so short. I only remember feeling at it the last time she hugged me, the sick feeling I had gotten in my stomach when I had thought I could wrap it around my hand as usual only to find it stopped suddenly, barely wrapping around my finger.

What if that strand of hair is my mother's life? Something meant to go on forever yet stopped suddenly?

"I'm sorry," Edward is apologizing, a look like agony on his face. "I didn't mean to upset you. I shouldn't have asked that."

"It's okay," I quietly lie because, of course, it isn't okay, and they know it. The looks on each of their faces as if each of them –even that brute called Emmett –night break down crying in a few seconds. "I don't know if my mother is alive or dead. Mason and I haven't seen her in eleven years."

"Do you know the circumstances surrounding your mother's disappearance?"

"You can back off now," Mason startles Edward and everyone else with the growl tearing out of his throat. I pinch the underside of his arm as warning, the signal we usually give each other when we publically start exhibiting non-human traits. He doesn't listen to me, though, and now I'm nervous.

"Don't be nervous," Jasper, Alice's foster brother/boyfriend, puts a hand on my shoulder and the feeling vanishes.

I stare at him in shock.

"How did you know I was nervous?" I ask. "And how did you make me not nervous?"

"It's Jasper's gift," Alice explains with a small smile. She's nervous, too. "He influences feelings. I can see small aspects of the future. Edward can read minds. Do you and Mason have any gifts like that?"

"Alright, enough!" Mason nearly throws his empty plate on the coffee table and surges to his feet looking sort of wild and untamable. Edward sees and loosens his fingers from mine for the first time since he took hold of them. He stands to meet Mason's challenge and, behind him, Emmett and Jasper rise as well.

This will not end well.

I am nervous all over again.

"When you wanted to play your little game of normal family new to the neighborhood, I humored you," Mason says to them. "I humored you even though you tried to corner my sister and get her to come here alone!"

"Mason, what are you talking about?" I hiss at him. He barely glances at me.

"But now," he resumes his rant to the Cullens, "now you want to poke around our mother's memory? Now you try to get inside our past? Why? What does a coven of vampires want with my baby sister?"

The room falls completely, deathly silent.

I can't help that my eyes swivel immediately to Edward needing to know whatever comfort he can give me. Surprisingly, it isn't the thought of being in the presence of vampires that sends me running toward him. It isn't even Mason's confirmation of what I have been suspecting for years now –that he and I are vampires. Never before has the word been spoken between us until now, but that isn't what sends me running to Edward.

I run to Edward because a feeling like a rubber band stretched too far has just popped inside my head, and memories I'm not sure are totally mine are pouring into my mind.

A glade filled with flowers and sunlight…

A song, a lullaby, flowing from a piano…

A voice calling over and over again, "Bella, I love you. Bella, I love you"…

"Why haven't you said anything?" I demand in a voice choked with tears. One look at my face and he knows that I know who he is, the reason why Mason and I look so freakishly like him. "This entire time we've been sitting here, and you haven't said anything about this!"

"I wanted to find the words to say it right," he tries soothing me by rubbing my back and he looks genuinely sorry, yet there is some amusement behind his eyes.

"What?" I challenge it, and now he openly chuckles.

"Forgive me, Isabella Renee, but you look exactly like your mother when you are upset."

"Do I? Do you have any pictures of her I can see? Jennifer only has a few and they're from a really, really long time ago."

"No, I'm sorry," he shakes his head as if he has admitted his greatest sin in life. "I never took pictures of your mother. I…I never thought I would need them. I always thought we would be together."

"You are a liar!" Mason's growl is heavier now, loud enough to shake the glass in the windowpane.

"Mason, stop!" I command him, taking his wrist in my grasp trying to anchor him. "Mason, look at Edward. Don't you know who he is? He's our father. We found our father, Mason, isn't that perfect? Now we know why we have vampire tendencies –it's because of him! We're not freaks; we're like our father!"

But Mason is unmoved.

His jaw is clenched so tightly, I swear he's going to break it. It's going to take some serious hunting and battling with an especially angry bear or something to cool him off from this. He is fuming where he stands, absolutely livid with a hatred I swear I can hear hissing, steaming, wishing he could rip Edward to pieces.

Why?

"Thank you for your hospitality," he remembers his manners even though his words to the Cullens drip with derision as he locks my arm in his death grip and drags me to the door to leave. "Bella and I must be getting home now."

"Mason, wait!" Edward runs toward us, visibly begging us not to leave.

I want to stay.

"Mason, please wait! I can explain everything. I can explain why I've been away, and I can explain what happened between your mother and me. You don't have to be angry."

"Edward didn't know about you, Mason," Carlisle comes to his son's rescue.

Whoa. Carlisle must be my grandfather, isn't he? It strikes me all of a sudden how amazingly well preserved each of the Cullens is…how creepy it is. Edward himself looks about seventeen, doesn't he? How is that? It makes me start walking willingly beside Mason as icy dread lodges itself in my shoulder blades.

Something is very, very wrong here.

"Mason, I assure you," Carlisle is speaking again, following us even when Mason puts me in our car and slams himself into the driver's seat. "Had your father known about your existence, there is no way he would ever fathom leaving you."

"It's true," Edward appears outside Mason's window now, staring earnestly through the glass. "I love you, Mason. You're my son! Don't leave. Come back inside and reason with me. Talk to me. If nothing else, please just hear me out, but don't drive away. Mason?"

"Do you know what Isabella Renee remembers about you?" Mason quirks an eyebrow at Edward as he lets down his window, wanting his words clearly heard and that's a problem. The Cullens have no clue, but I know that Mason's wrath is nothing to mess with, and not even I, his twin, can do anything to rein him in now.

"Isabella Renee remembers you the way our mother remembered you," Mason blasts a look of shame onto Edward's face, "the lullaby, your voice…that's what she remembers. You want to know what I remember about you?"

Mason must have sent Edward a mental visual because not another word left his mouth, yet Edward's face is going ashen, starkly pale, and he stands still as stone, horrified. That is the only word to describe him, actually. Horrified.

"I…" he opens his mouth to apologize probably, but lapses off as if no apology in the world can ever make amends for whatever Mason has shown him.

"Let me in," I tug on Mason's sleeve. "Please? Tell me what's going on."

"I'll let you in when we get home, but for now let's get this straight while everyone is here to witness it. You and I don't have any dealings with the Cullens, Isabella Renee. Do you understand?"

"But Mason…!"

"Wait until I tell you the truth about our wonderful father," he smiled sadistically and he started the engine and prepared to drive away from the Cullens for what felt like forever. "You'll definitely understand then."


	4. Chapter 4

When You Love Someone

Chapter Four

Alice

Isabella Renee refuses to look at me.

At first I think I might be imagining things –that maybe she is merely tired and falling asleep because this is the last period of the day, but, when I pass her a note, she covertly lets the wind whistling through a crack in the window blow it away toward another student. And, when I try starting a conversation with her like the last time we were in class together, she stares straight ahead, straight at the gigantic mole on Mr. Lombard's upper lip.

Isabella Renee is ignoring me. I am being ignored.

I find myself torn between the novelty of the experience and sheer infuriation. I am, after all, her aunt Alice (Yay me! I'm an Auntie!) , and she should have a lot more respect for me than this.

But, I have to remind myself, I don't know what Mason has told her, what he remembers about Edward that has shamed my brother into an internal exile so deep not even Jasper can sense the slightest tremor of emotion from him.

Something is very, very wrong.

So, after class, I walk directly over to the girl, heedless of my speed, and stand right in front of her where she cannot dodge me as I can see her planning to do.

"You didn't take any notes today," I glance good-naturedly at the empty notebook in her hands. "Want mine? Of course, you and Mason could always come to my house and have Edward tutor you. He would love that. He's really good at Calc–"

"Please stop," she interrupts me in a hurry and rushes out of the classroom, thinking she's on her way to freedom only to walk right into Edward himself on his way to our car as usual.

He stops in his tracks.

She stops in hers.

They stand toe to toe staring at each other for three full minutes while kids pass around them, watching them with matching frowns of confusion and realizing for the first time –the very first time –that Edward Cullen and Isabella Renee Swan look strangely alike…very, very strangely alike.

Human kids.

"Isabella," Edward says her name like it's a prayer, in a pleading whisper so agonizing it puts tears in the girl's eyes and before she can catch herself she's reaching out to him, slowly, and he's reaching back. Their fingers come close. They're going to touch until…

"I can't!" she snaps to reality with a jolt and snatches her hand away before it touches his. "How could you do that? How could you leave Mommy?"

"Please let me explain it to you," Edward begs her, reaches out to her a second time but she's fast in walking away, in the parking lot before either Edward or I make it to the door, but Edward surges ahead heedless of the human kids around us and desperate to stop his daughter from getting in the car where Mason sits waiting to take her away.

"Bella, please! Listen to me. I said what I said to your mother to protect her. I was tired of seeing her get hurt because of my life, because of what I am. There was no other way to save her. I had to leave her, but I had no idea I was leaving you and Mason as well. Leaving your mother was the hardest thing I have ever done, but to leave my children would have been unbearable –unthinkable!"

"You broke her heart," Isabella Renee is crying now, wiping tears and the angel-like hairs soaked with her tears from her face with the back of her hand. "Mason felt it, you know? He felt her heart break inside of her. He heard every word you said, and he felt Mommy grieving for you and wondering if you would ever come back. I never felt any of those things because, I didn't know it, but Mason used to erase those memories and those feelings for me. That's what he can do, did you know? He can erase things. He…he asked me if I wanted him to erase meeting you."

"No!" I can't help but intrude on the conversation now even though I really want to let them have this time alone. The thought of Isabella Renee forgetting all of us is too painful and too abominable to keep me quiet; too much like losing Bella, her mother, all over again only in a more torturous way.

"Isabella, please don't do this! Don't let Mason make decisions this big and life-altering for you. Make up your own mind! What do you want? Do you want to forget your father? Do you want to lose us as your family? If Mason really wants to help you, tell him to erase what he showed you about your parents!"

"He showed her the truth, Alice," Edward stops me from speaking any further, a look of pure determination on his face. "It's a truth I'm far from proud of, but it is the truth. Nevertheless, I will not let it come between me and my chance to have Bella –even just a piece of Bella –in my life again."

Before either Isabella Renee or I can register what he's doing, Edward has crossed the parking lot to the outdated, very used car Mason drives.

It's a Volvo.

I wait for Edward to catch the irony, the like-father-like-son parallel, but he's too blinded by anger to see it. As it is, he bangs his fist against the glass of Mason's window until the boy lets it down, takes one look at his sister in our company, and puts his scowl on.

"I specifically told you to stay away from my sister."

"My house. One hour," Edward tells him and takes hold of Isabella's arm as incentive. "We need to talk just you and me. Isabella will be waiting for you when you get there."

"Edward, don't pressure him!"

"Mason, no!"

But my warning and Isabella's come too late.

In a blink, Mason is out of the car, Isabella is on the ground where Edward has dropped her, and Edward and Mason are locked by the arms, both snarling venomously in each other's faces, long canines poised for tearing at each other's jugular. Edward moves first, too quickly for Mason's young strength to apprehend, and flings the boy backward, nearly catapulting him into a light pole standing three yards away. But Mason rights himself at the last minute and manages to launch himself over the top of the car toward Edward, slashing his father across the shoulder and making absolutely no apology for it.

"That's it!" I announce and stand between them with an expression that dares Mason to take one step toward me.

He doesn't. Smart boy.

"Mason and Edward! What does this prove? What does this solve?"

"Don't you ever lay your hands on my sister!" Mason howls and birds roosting in the trees around us scatter into the air in a panicked plume. "Don't you ever use her some sort of hostage, like some bargaining tool you can use and reuse whenever you want! Is this a game to you? Is that what we are –a way for you to occupy your eternity? That's what our mother was, wasn't it?"

"You have no idea what your mother was to me!"

"You know what she is to me? Gone! Because of you! And I've been taking care of my sister ever since, watching out for her the way you never did! I'm the one who works two jobs to make sure she can pay for her ballet classes, and I'm the one who goes without to make sure she can get her hands on clothes she isn't ashamed to wear in public even though they're nowhere near what she would like to wear. I do that! I take care of her, yet you want to stroll up to me making demands now like you're somebody who matters? You don't mean a thing to us!"

His rant leaves him breathless just as listening to it, the pain dripping off of it, leaves Edward and me breathless with shame, with self-loathing, as we realize for the first time what a truly hard life the twins have had, how they have suffered to be fed and clothed –two things we took for granted daily, two things no one should ever have to go without.

And it's our fault. We let this happen to them.

I want to be furious with Mason for the way he has behaved, the way he has disrespected Edward, but as I look at his hair tousled and too long, at his jeans faded and thin, and at his hands calloused from all the hard work he did to take care of himself and his sister, all I feel is genuine grief and a deep, aching desire to take care of my nephew and my niece. I just want to take them home and…

"Where is Isabella Renee?" I ask aloud when, in a quick sweep of our scene, I see with cold clarity that she is missing.

The horror hits Mason immediately.

"Oh, my God!" he hisses, wrenches open the car door, and cranks the engine without any further thought. "She knows better than to run off! The last time she did this…!"

I want so badly to ask him what happened the last time his sister ran off, but I'm too preoccupied with keeping up with Edward as he pounds across the pavement to our own car where Emmett, Rosalie, and Jasper are waiting bored and anxious to leave.

"It's about time!" Rosalie shrieks when she sees us. "We've been waiting on you two for the past twenty minutes! Where have you been?"

"Did you guys get in a fight?" Emmett frowns first at Edward's torn shoulder then at my terrified expression.

Jasper is beside me instantly and I let myself fall into him gratefully, knowing he can feel the panic and grief raging inside of me with no way of getting out without smashing me to bits first.

"Edward, what happened?" he demands, but Edward is already starting the car, heedless of the rest of us, and only I know why.

"Edward, answer me! What's wrong with Alice?"

"Yeah, and what's wrong with you?" Emmett stops the car from making a single movement by placing his gigantic , bare hand on the end of it, making Edward turn a murderous glare on him.

"Move!"

"What's the magic word?"

"Not now, Emmett, please!" I reach out and take his hand away from the car in time for Edward to speed off, only a minute behind the slower but frantic progress of Mason's car tearing down the road.

"Edward and Mason got into a fight," I answer my siblings' questioning frowns on me. "I guess Isabella got scared…or merely fed up. Anyway, she's gone now, and Edward and Mason are trying to find her before…"

"Before what?" Rosalie looks sincerely concerned which makes what I have to say all the more difficult. "What is going to happen, Alice?"

"I have no idea."


	5. Chapter 5

When You Love Someone

Chapter Five

Isabella Renee

There is a small café where I go to think whenever life gets too hard for me.

I'm there now sitting in a window seat and watching the people outside wander aimlessly from shop to shop, talking to each other or their phones, never noticing my crying face hiding behind the glass.

A waiter comes my way again, and for the fifth time I send her a mental message to go elsewhere. I don't have the money to pay for anything this place has to offer, and I never do.

"Strawberry Cappuccino?"

The offer startles me back into the scenery of the café to make the connection that I have been spoken to by the man hovering over my right shoulder. When I turn to see him, I have to crane my neck to take in his tall frame easily topping six feet, intimidating if not for the pair of honest brown eyes smiling down at me.

Burning into me.

The moment our gazes lock, I feel dizzy and exposed, on fire and strangely freezing at the same time. For the fraction of a second, he frowns as if he feels it, too, but before I can be sure he's talking again and setting a fresh cup of some steaming beverage before me.

"I've seen you in here before," he tells me, nodding at the drink. "You never order, but this seems like something you would like."

"Thanks," I say and take an experimental sniff disguised as a sip. He could be anybody, after all, and the last thing I need is to be kidnapped. Most of the time, I never doubted my ability to take on a human if ever a situation called for it, but I'm not so sure about this specimen. This guy, whoever he is, seems solid, immovable even, and he admits to studying me which means he has the upper hand right now.

But the drink smells fine. So, for now, I'll assume he has no interior motive which is fortunate for me since I can't seem to take my eyes off of him.

"Can I sit with you?"

"Sure," I shove my backpack to the floor so he can take the seat across from me as confidently as if we have sat together like this a million times before. I am mesmerized by the way he moves so methodically and unhurried, as if he has everything under control right down to the very second of attack-

No wait. Why am I thinking about attacks? That can't be what this handsome stranger reminds me of, some predatory animal!

…is it?

"I just moved out here," he tells me as if sensing my uncertainty and eager to put it away. "I'm staying at a boarding house on Cape Street doing odd jobs until the winter sets in and I can go back home."

"The Stanford Boarding House?" I ask, amazed at my fortune. "That's one block over from where I live! What do you mean you're waiting to go back home?"

"Oh," he shrugs with a rueful smile as if he's let something slip on accident. "Nothing. It's just that there's someone in my hometown right now who I can't be around for a while."

"Why not?"

"Because we don't get along. At all."

"So you left an entire town to get away from one person?" I arch an eyebrow at him and he chuckles, finally seeing how ridiculous he looks. "It must be serious, huh?"

"A matter of life and death, and that's the truth."

"So, where is this hometown?"

"Forks, Washington," he answers and then extends his hand toward me. "Please excuse my manners, but I don't think I've told you yet that my name is Jacob Black."

"Nice to meet you!" I can't help but smile as I say his name over and over again in my mind, savoring it. It sounds exactly the way he looks: delicious. In an instant, I begin to have a series of uncontrollable fantasies of he and I taking long walks on some deserted beach. In my mind, it isn't a particularly pretty place and there is absolutely no sun, but Jacob and I are together and that makes everything –even the cold, dead feeling of the rocks under our feet beautiful. Now, water is lapping at our toes and I am giggling. Now, Jacob presses me close to him so the swell won't eat me…

"And your name?"

His question pulls me out of the daydream and back into his warm brown eyes.

"Sorry," I apologize, but he has no idea it's because of the butterflies beating against my stomach. He has to hear them, unless nothing else is discernible past the thudding of my heart?

"I'm Isabella Swan. What's wrong?"

"I have to go."

"What? Wait! Please wait!"

But he's already gone. He's already on his motorcycle, speeding away from this café as fast as he possibly can, and I am staring after him hurting as if the farther he goes the less blood my heart remembers to pump.

Why did he leave after I told him my name? That was more than rude and hurtful; it was bizarre, only slightly more bizarre, that is, than how totally obsessed I am with him and how he moves, the way he talks, the electric current that runs through me the more I say his name to myself.

Jacob Black. Jacob Black. Jacob Black.

I know where he's staying and I know his name –the only truly important tools I need to track him down and force him to reckon with me. But can I do that? Can I be so crazy as to see him again merely because I wanted to even though it seems fairly obvious that he doesn't want to see me?

"Isabella Renee Swan!"

My plans will have to wait for now, I see, as Mason comes storming through the door, hollering my name


	6. Chapter 6

When You Love Someone

Chapter Six

Edward

Mason put Isabella Renee under house arrest after that. She goes from her room to school and back again. Sometimes, she doesn't even come to school, just waits until he brings home her books and the notes she missed instead. I know, because I have been spying on the both of the them for a week now, the same way that I used to spy on Bella before…

I can't help but grimace at the memory of what I did to her, the only memory my son has of me. I can't tell whether or not Mason has erased Isabella Renee's memory yet, but I'm beginning to doubt it if my daughter's persistent failing health is any measuring tool. She seems ill very often lately, getting pale and losing her appetite even for the small cups of blood Mason milks from their pet dog, a huge brute of a thing named Bear. Isabella lays around most of the time, sulking in her bed, but over what I cannot understand. Mason treats her well and gives her everything she wants, yet she cries when she's alone –sobs, really. It's as if she's lost someone, as if there has been a death of some sort.

It isn't until Jennifer, the woman who takes care of them, intervenes that I can, from my hiding place in Isabella's closet, discover the truth.

Jennifer is tall and thin, covered in an unfortunate sack of a dress and often tosses her mane of yellow hair. She's tanned as if she spends most of her time outside, and her hands are strong as if she gardens and weeds a lot. How does she know Bella? I cannot help but wonder. Strange I did not think until now that, of course, Bella already had friends before she moved to Forks. Who were they? What did they all think happened to her? Did any of them know about me? Who is Jennifer that Bella would see fit to entrust our children to her?

"For six days now," Jennifer fingers some of Isabella's locks behind her ear, "I have dreamed of a boy standing in the shadow of your heart, shivering and lost. What's his name?"

"Don't make me talk about it," Isabella pleads and my cold, dead heart crumbles inside me. A boy? Isabella Renee dates? Has crushes? It seems so wrong, so unbelievably wrong. I just found out about her, making her my baby girl, but now I have to realize that my baby girl isn't a baby.

I missed that part of her life.

I missed the days when she needed me to take care of her, missed the days when she needed to be protected, missed all the moments in her life I feel an overwhelming need to be part of now. It's too late. She's grown up. She's been lying in her bed for a week now lovesick over a boy.

I can kill him, the thought flies into my mind subtly, harmlessly. I can find out who he is and kill him, and then this entire situation will disappear…

…what did Jennifer mean when she said she dreamed of this?

"Holding in all this negative energy is really unhealthy for you, Bellie," she continues trying to coax Isabella into talking to her, and I can't help but find it cute that she addresses my daughter as "Bellie". Was that Bella's idea? I wish I could ask her. "Are you sure you don't want to talk about it?"

"I just can't!" Isabella insists, wiping tears from her cheeks. "It hurts too much! I feel like my heart is going to burst! I feel like huge pieces of me are missing, like someone stole them, and I can't take it! Is this what love is like? Is this what my mother felt when my dad left her?"

I flinch. I can't help it because Isabella is right. This must have been exactly the way Bella had felt when I did the Abominable Act. At least, this is how Mason remembers her feeling.

It takes ten more seconds before I am disturbed at the idea that my daughter loves someone the way that Bella once loved me. Again, I think to find this boy and kill him.

"I can't do this. I can't keep going on like this. Make it stop, please, Jennifer."

"Well, since you won't tell me his name," Jennifer sits her up and carefully helps her to her feet, "the only thing I can do is offer you some extra sweet lemonade with a side of my extra yummy lemon pie. Want some? It's on the table in the kitchen. Eat some before Mason gets home from work and there's nothing left! Go on. And Edward," she says only once Isabella is gone and far out of earshot, "you can stop hiding now. Come on out here."

Sheepishly, I do as she asks, feeling like a complete idiot, of course, all the while. But, more than anything else, I am curious. Jennifer dreamed of Isabella's mystery boy, and now she sensed my presence in Isabella's room? What kind of woman am I dealing with?

"I'm sorry," I feel obligated to apologize for my scandalous behavior. "I realize how very foolish I look hiding in Isabella's closet this way."

"Who am I to judge?" Jennifer shrugs and plants herself in one of Isabella's swivel chairs. "She's your daughter. If you want to spy on her, isn't that your fatherly right?"

And now I am in absolute awe.

"You know that I am Isabella and Mason's father?" I question her. How is she not having a meltdown at the sight of my seventeen year old self claiming to be the father of two fifteen year olds? "Did Bella tell you that?"

"She told me everything as it pertains to you, Edward Cullen," Jennifer confirmed with a quiet nod of her head. "I hope you don't mind, but she needed to trust someone, someone who wouldn't judge her, and I'm great with suspended judgment."

"So, you're Bella's friend?"

"We met in pre-school when she tripped over her shoelaces because she didn't know how to tie them. I knew how to tie shoes, so I showed her. We were inseparable ever after until she spent that year in Forks and came back pregnant."

The amusement I had felt at the anecdote quickly lifts away in light of another question I have yet to ask.

"Jennifer, what happened? After Bella found out about the twins, where did she go? What did she do? Why didn't she try to contact me?"

"She went to Phoenix," Jennifer shrugged as if that was the logical answer. "She needed to clear her head. Her mom, of course, quickly stopped traveling with Phil, her stepfather –did you know about him? –to help her, but Bella being Bella knew that Renee wasn't the motherly type and hated being cooped up in the house with her. So, again, Bella left and went back to Forks where she had the twins."

"She wasn't supposed to live through that," I almost whispered the scary truth. "She was supposed to die that day, Jennifer. If you really do know all about me, then surely you know what I am."

"A vampire," Jennifer nodded –not with distaste, though there is a bitter aura of displeasure that is unmistakable. "Yes, I didn't need Bella to tell me that. With the way she went on and on about you, I knew she must've been under a spell of some sort, and I found out soon that she was under your spell: the spell of an incubus."

And there is that bitter displeasure. I can't help but wince with the sting of it.

"Still, I can't be angry with you. You being what you are allowed me to finally be truthful with Bella about what I am."

"Excuse me?" It never crossed my mind in all this time I have known Jennifer existed that she can possibly be anything other than human. Honestly, what else can she be? She smells human, looks human…

And that's when the door to the room shuts softly behind me without anyone touching it. That is when I dare to understand.

"Are you a witch, Jennifer?"

"A good one, though. Don't worry," she winks in a way I know means she's good to everyone except vampires who inadvertently kill her best friend. "I'm the one who cast a spell to save Bella, but, novice witch that I was when she had the twins, I didn't know to cover certain bases of her well-being.

"You see, spells are tricky; it's like they don't want to be cast. If the wording isn't perfect so that there are no loopholes, the desired result will only be partial, temporary, like what happened to Bella. I cast a spell that she would outlive the twins' birth, but I didn't put a time limit on how long her life after would be, leaving it open ended to Fate. And I'm sorry," Jennifer dips her head in true, silent grief. "I wish I had known better, but…oh, well. Spilled milk, I guess."

"What happened?"

"When you and Bella…you know…created Mason and Isabella Renee –some of your venom went inside of her, like a parasite taking a new host."

Again, I winced at the truth. I hurt my Bella. Every moment I had ever shared with her, I had always hurt her, had always put her life in peril. Small wonder my son hated me. In times like this, I hated myself, too.

"In a way, you did her a favor," Jennifer continues. "Your venom mutated her genetic makeup enough to help her carry the twins to full term and have them traditionally. Compounded with my spell, she had a safe if somewhat especially trying delivery without the gore. You know –the bit about vampire babies chewing their way out? Bella didn't go through that because of you and me. It was only after the twins were born that everything fell apart. My spell was null and void. By surviving one second after the birth she had fulfilled it, making it useless, and that venom you gave her? It started eating at her from the inside out in a form very close to cancer, all around her heart."

How ironic. How horribly ironic.

"I stayed with her for the summer at Mr. Swan's house when Renee left, but then school started and I had to go to college. We kept in touch, of course. I came back to see the babies baptized and me named godmother. She named this guy as godfather, a friend of hers named Jacob Black. You know about him?"

If I had blood, it would be boiling.

"She did what?"

"He's a wolf. Literally, a shape shifter. I told her that was risky with the way those animals fail to control their tempers, and not to mention it's unlucky to make wolves any type of guardian. They're naturally tricksters and harbingers of disaster. Doesn't everyone know that? She wouldn't listen, though, and Jacob Black was all too eager to be the twin's daddy-figure anyway. He loved Bella. You know that, though, don't you?"

"I never thought it would be an issue," I tell the empty truth, the pain I have brought on myself. "I thought I would always be there to keep them apart."

"I don't know what happened between them, if anything happened between them at all. All I know is she named him godfather and me godmother on the twin's first birthdays, and the year after that, neither of us knew where she was. She disappeared, none of us knows where. The next time I saw her, the twins were four years old and she was all bones, her hair chopped off, and your cancerous venom eating her to death. She came here and begged me to take the twins. Why not your parents, I asked? No, she said, because they wouldn't understand if the twins wanted blood instead of cereal for breakfast. What about Jacob, I asked? No, she said, but she didn't give a reason for that one. As you can see, I agreed to take the children. Renee and Mr. Swan see them for Christmas and a few Thanksgivings depending on their schedules."

"And what about Bella?" I can't hide how irrelevant all other information is to me. "What became of her? Where did she go? What was the last news you heard about her?"

"She gave me the number of the place where she would be staying for round-the-clock treatment," Jennifer tells me quietly, and already I know I don't really want to hear what she's about to say. "I called for her because it was Easter and I wanted to know if she could come up here to dye eggs with the kids. They missed her so much, you see. But the lady that answered the phone told me there was no one in the place registered under the name Isabella Swan and there never had been."

"Bella lied?"

"Apparently. The question is, why? Renee and Mr. Swan had fake numbers, too. We don't know what the real story is or where Bella really went. Why would she lie to the people who loved her? I don't get it. If she's dead, I want to know she's dead. At least that puts an end to it, but this unknowing is torture. She could be anywhere…or nowhere at all. We don't know."

"Does Jacob Black know?"

"Jacob Black?" Jennifer frowns at me. "Oh, you don't know? He's dead. Yeah, some vampire chick named Victoria tore him to shreds."


	7. Chapter 7

When You Love Someone

Chapter 7

Isabella Renee

I don't know where the courage came from, but I concocted a plan.

I asked Mason to drop me off at the library on his way to work Saturday, claiming I wanted to cross reference another edition of something for school. He agreed, of course, and told me he would come back to get me on his lunch break in four hours. He doesn't know I'm not spending those four hours anywhere near the library.

I'm at the Stanford Boarding House instead.

Looking for Jacob Black.

It's easy to find him because his is the only door in the place without a nametag stuck to it, perfectly matching what he told me about lying low for some reason and not wanting to be bothered.

So I knock. I knock again. He's either stupefied at the idea of having actual company come to call, or he has overdosed and passed out somewhere beyond, but he is definitely home. I know because I saw his motorcycle parked downstairs. So, I keep knocking –insistently, irritatingly. Eventually, whether he wants to or not, he's going to have to –

"WHAT?"

He growls. He actually growls. The force of his sudden ripping open of the door to blast down whoever dared to disturb him (me, I guess) knocks me down on my butt, hitting my head on the corner of a wall, and falling against the hard carpet dotted with mysterious stains.

Huh. I never noticed how kind of sleazy this boarding house is…

"Hi!" I greet him past the grunts of pulling myself back to my feet. "You may not remember me, but…"

I can't finish my thought because I'm finally upright again and noticing that he has on no shirt whatsoever. None. He's wearing only a pair of gym shorts rising not quite high enough to cover the rim of his black boxers. He's so gorgeous. It's the first time I have ever thought that about a guy in my entire life. I've seen my share of cute and adorable boys, but Jacob Black somehow is different than all of them. He's something I feel like I've been missing for all my life.

"What do you want?" he asks again, softer this time and not with an unspoken threat to rip my head off.

"You're sort of beautiful."

I blurt it out like an idiot, and his face goes completely blank as he whispers almost to himself, "How hard did you hit your head?"

"Pretty hard, I guess," I shrug, trying to be a good sport about it. "Sorry. I get clumsy at awkward moments, like when I'm really nervous or something. Um, like I was saying, you might not remember me but my name is Isabella. Isabella Swan."

"I remember."

He sounds like he doesn't want to…

"Okay, then. Great because I remember your name, too. You're Jacob Black."

"Why are you here?"

My resolve slips away and I can feel it, the desperate need to be close to him, pressing against that sore, empty, aching space between my ribs.

"Jacob, can I talk to you?"

"Jake?"

It's a girl calling him.

From inside his room.

She comes up beside him, pushing back the door so she can see me, and now I see where his shirt ran away to –falling all over her, a leggy brunette with eyelashes for days and I hope they're fake. It'll hurt her less that way when I rip them off her face.

"Who is she?" I demand to know.

"Who are you?" she returns the sass, clearly unaware who she's messing with.

Panty-less whore.

"Jacob!" I snap his name and he takes me seriously. I can see it in the guilty shadow falling on his face. "Who is she?"

"She's…she's nobody, okay?" he shrugs, and then admits embarrassedly. "I actually don't remember her name right now."

"What do you mean you don't remember my name? We've been together for days now! Hey!" The Brunette shrieks at me as I burst into the room and grab the first couple things I see: a bag I stuff with a rag and a toothbrush, the two Poptarts I spy on the counter, and a bar of soap perched on the edge of the bathroom sink because heaven knows she'll need that.

"Here," I shove the care-bag at her and then shove her out the door. "He doesn't remember your name because he doesn't belong to you. Take a bath, buy some underwear, and you might be able to find someone else. What?" I demand from Jacob when I slam the door and catch him smirking at me, badly hiding his amusement with the side of his hand.

"You sure do act like a she-wolf, I'll give you that."

"I act like a what?"

"A she-wolf," he shrugs sort of as if he hates he said that or, at least, hates I heard. "Territorial, you know?"

"Is this funny to you? I come to see you and find you with some prostitute!"

"She's not a prostitute, and my life is none of your business."

"How can you say that? You know what lies between us."

"Yeah, age," he fixes me with a glare and I feel stupid all of a sudden for not thinking about asking him how old he is. Sure, I'll be sixteen in a few weeks, but I still had to be a minor compared to him. "Isn't someone supposed to be watching you today? I just know you have a keeper with the bad decisions you make."

"Don't do that," I beg him. "Don't treat me like a child. Please."

"Bell…I mean," he starts to say something –maybe even something thoughtful –but he trips up over my name, and I frown. Again, he's acting bizarre just because of my name.

"Say my name," I challenge him, and his face loses the remorse it held a second ago to make room for suspicion.

"Why?"

"Why not? Why is it that after I told you my name in the café, you got up and left? Did you know a girl named Isabella before?"

"You have no idea."

"So what happened? Did she break your heart?"

"No. She ate it for breakfast."

"Ha!" I laugh before I can think better of it, and feel totally heartless when he glares incredulously at me. "Sorry."

"Unbelievable."

"No, Jacob, I'm sorry! Please!" I catch his arm to keep him from walking away from me. At the touch of his skin, my own goes cold and tingly as if it's awake for the first time ever. He feels it, too. I know he does. That's why he pulls away immediately and goes to sit on the opposite side of the room, putting distance between us.

"I'm sorry I laughed. I don't think it's funny that someone hurt you, it's just funny the way you said it."

"So bloodshed is amusing to you?"

"Don't be so dramatic!" I swipe away his theatrics. "It's not like this girl actually reached inside your chest and took your heart out because you would be dead if she had done that! No one can live without a heart."

"So, you don't believe in the living dead? Interesting."

"Why is it interesting?"

"No reason," he shrugs and plays with the fire of a lighter I never saw him take out. Does he smoke? I'm about to ask when he speaks again. "I loved her."

"Who? The other Isabella?"

"Yeah," he's growling again, peeved. "Her. I gave her everything I had. I risked my life for her."

"Doing what?"

"It doesn't matter now. I fought for her. I protected her, but, after everything, I still meant nothing to her."

"Was there someone else, then?" I carefully probe, wanting to know just how deep his pain went.

"Yeah, some other guy," he leads me down his rabbit hole. "He said he loved her."

"Didn't he?"

"He had a funny way of showing it since he got her pregnant and left her for everybody in town to gossip about. I never left her. I swore to her I would never hurt her, never treat her the way he did. She still chose him. I never meant a thing to her."

"I'm so sorry, Jacob. But I can tell you that girl suffered for her choice. I know because my mom had me and my twin brother when she was young and unmarried, too, and she suffered. She suffered so badly, she gave me and my brother up. We haven't seen her in years."

"You haven't?"

"No. We don't even know if she's still alive. See? Harsh. So, maybe you should stop hauling Isabella's baggage around and move onto a new phase in your life…with a new Isabella, maybe? Come on," I skip over to where he sits and plant myself in his lap before he can stop me. "Come on, Jacob!" I poke him in the side, somehow knowing he's ticklish there though that makes no sense. And he smiles. He actually smiles. "Come on, Jacob! Give me a kiss."

"You need to go!"

"A quick kiss! Okay, okay, on my cheek, then. No? Not even on my cheek? Jacob, you're just playing hard to get!"

"You're a crazy person!"

"Give me a kiss!"

"Here! Now hush."

But we both fall silent because his kiss lands right on my lips, a quick brush of contact, but so many things are translated in that moment. I feel branded, like everyone who looks at me now will know with a glance that I belong to him, and that he belongs to me. We are tied together and no one –no skanky girl, no over-protective brother –and nothing, not even an age gap (whatever it is, I still don't know) can separate us.

"Isn't it lovely?" I ask him past a huge smile, filled with the euphoria of it, but he has a lock of my bronze hair between his fingers, looking at it and at me as if it makes me someone else, someone he hates…

"I can't do this."

"Jacob, please!"

"Leave. Now."

"Get away from me, Bella!"

"Oh, my God," I freeze in my tracks, staring at him slack-jawed. "You said my name."

"Yes," he's breathing heavily, unsettled, "but I'm not sure it's you I was talking to, if you know what I mean. Listen, someday you'll find a guy who really loves you for you and not for…anything else. Wait for that guy, okay? I'm sorry, but I'm not the one."

How can he do this? How can he stand here and lie to my face like this? It makes me furiously stomp over to the door and wrench it open, turn once, and bellow at him.

"You are the one! At least, you could be the one! It's just that for some reason I'll NEVER know, you don't want to be! Well, fine! I'll make it without you! I don't need you to want me!"

"If you knew who I really," he sears into me with those huge brown eyes melting me and my resolve again, and I flinch. How is he doing this? "If you knew the truth about me, you wouldn't want me either. Goodbye, Isabella Renee. Don't come to see me anymore."


	8. Chapter 8

When You Love Someone

Chapter 8

Edward

"Their godfather? Is she insane?" Emmett is the first to speak after I've told my family all that Jennifer relayed to me. "No, this is sketch, Man. This doesn't sound like something Bella would do."

"Jacob Black is a dog!" Now it's Rosalie's turn to shout, visibly incensed. "Bella is so selfish! Those children should have been given to us, not that mongrel!"

"Those children should have been given to me," I correct her, silencing the room, "because I am their father. As it is, we were all…unavailable…and Bella did what she thought was best. It hardly matters now. The twins are nearly grown, and Jacob Black is dead."

"What?"

"Victoria killed him."

"That's so sad," Esme sympathizes. "It must have happened soon after we left, then, because you, Emmett, and Jasper tracked her down and killed her, remember? It's a shame we couldn't have stopped her sooner. And—oh! She must have been looking for Bella," Esme says with a hand to her mouth in horror. "Oh, Edward! Jacob must have taken Bella's place to save her and to save the twins. He sacrificed himself for your children!"

"Son," Carlisle stares me down to drive home Esme's point. "You owe the Black family a priceless debt. I hope you realize this."

"I do," I nod, swallowing hard, "and yet, I must go to Forks and ask them for another favor."

"Forks?"

"What?"

"You're leaving?"

"You can't go there. What about the Treaty?"

"What favor?" Surprisingly, it's only Jasper who thinks to ask this, but his question makes the room go quiet with curiosity. What favor could exist between a vampire and a pack of werewolves?

"Jennifer told me," I explain, "that the last time she saw Bella, the twins were four years old. Bella was handing over the children to her, the godmother, and not to Jacob, the godfather. Bella never explained why."

"Isn't it obvious?" Rosalie snorts. "Think, Edward. Think _really_ hard. Jacob probably only agreed to this godfather business because he thought it would get him Bella. That's it. Otherwise, do you honestly think he wanted to play house with two vampire babies? Especially knowing they were your vampire babies? Jacob probably hated Mason and Isabella Renee, and the minute Bella made it clear she didn't want to be with him, he probably tried to kill them all."

"Rosalie!" Carlisle snaps at her, reminding her of her place. "Were you there? Did you see Jacob say this to Bella? No? Then perhaps it would be wiser to say nothing at all rather than slander a young man who died at the hands of a woman who tried to kill your niece and nephew. Wouldn't you say so?"

"Maybe that's it, Edward!" Esme sits forward on the couch with the force of her epiphany. "Maybe that's why Bella left the twins with Jennifer and not with Jacob. If Jacob was already dead by that point, then she _couldn't_ have left them with him, and if she felt like his death was her fault, then that would be why she wouldn't account for it to Jennifer."

"No, I don't think so," I shake my head, lost in my own thoughts. "Jennifer is a witch, you see."

"A witch?" Emmett smirks and frowns at the same time, as if he wants to laugh but needs to know that there's no way I can possibly be serious. But I am. "A witch?" he repeats. "Like a Wizard of Oz witch or a Harry Potter witch? Or a Rosalie witch? What?" he says defensively when we all laugh and Rosalie pins him with an icy stare. "Rose, look, I love you and all, but have you seen yourself? You're witchy, and it's actually gotten worse since we left Bella. I think you miss her."

"I don't," Rosalie is quick to correct, and even quicker to move to the other side of the room, distancing herself from her irritating husband. "And I don't want to talk about this anymore."

"Fine, then," Carlisle allows and switches his attentions back to me. The room follows his lead. "Edward, you were saying?"

"Jennifer, the twins' godmother, is a witch in the truest and most ancient sense of the title. She has vision-dreams, she can sense the energy of others, and she's telekinetic. All in all, the perfect surrogate mother, and a small wonder Bella chose her," I have to smile here, impressed by my love even now. "Bella was with Jennifer when she gave birth. Jennifer told me so because Jennifer cast a spell to ensure Bella's delivery went…traditionally."

"Ah," Carlisle nods. "I see. And did it go traditionally?"

"In every way. Bella outlived the twins by at least four years. Wait a minute," I frown and lose my focus on my family, suddenly struck by a fact that leaves my mouth dry.

"Edward, what's the matter?" I can feel Esme's hand on my shoulder. I can feel Jasper trying to send me waves of calm—but it isn't working.

"The timeline is off," Alice says in a whisper just as it also occurs to me. "It's wrong. The chronology is wrong. It has to be."

"What do you mean Alice?" Carlisle turns to her, frantic for answers, so she begins to explain.

"Think about the time we killed Victoria. It was before Bella had the twins, which means that Jacob Black should have been dead by the time the twins were born."

"So?" Rosalie huffs, disinterested as always, but Jasper catches his wife's revelation immediately.

"But we already know that it's impossible for Jacob Black to have been dead by the time the twins were born because after their birth, Bella named him godfather. Either Jacob is not their godfather or Jacob isn't dead. Someone is lying."

"Jennifer said," I speak again now but hesitantly, still trying to figure it out myself, "that Bella baptized the twins when they were a year old. Then, for the next year, neither Jennifer nor Jacob knew where Bella was. The next time Jennifer saw Bella, the twins were four years old, right, and Bella suddenly no longer wanted to speak of Jacob whom, we've established, was not actually…dead? That means for two years, Bella could have been anywhere….but I'm guessing she was—"

"With Jacob," the room finishes the sentence for me, looking sorry but not sorrier than I feel.

"They must have quarreled," Carlisle helps me reason. "Something major happened between them, Edward, and, whatever it was, it made her put the children in hiding and exile herself to whatever life she had left to live. Poor girl."

"If he truly isn't dead, then Jacob Black knows exactly what happened to Bella," I speak aloud my suspicions. "He might even hold a clue as to where she is now…if she's anywhere now. I must return to Forks. I must speak with him at any cost."


	9. Chapter 9

When You Love Someone

May 15, 2012

Chapter Nine

Mason

"Mason. You came," Edward sounds shocked as I walk into the circle of Cullens standing in the school parking lot. They all looked surprised and with good reason. Not even I know the depths of how much I hate them. Well, how much I hate Edward. I know they must've seen the way I slashed his shoulder last week. I can sense how tense Emmett and Jasper are, preparing themselves in case I attack again, and I like that. It makes me feel like I have some power after all, some semblance of control.

"You have ten minutes," I tell Edward. "That's all I promised Alice I'd give you."

"That's all I need. I want to tell you that I am leaving."

"What else is new?"

"Mason, please," he pleads with me, looking very sad and very serious all of a sudden. "I have something very important to say if you would just listen. I'm leaving for Forks."

"I prefer spoons, but whatever."

"Forks is the town where your mother and I met. I'm using it as my starting point."

"Starting point for what?"

"I'm going to find your mother. I don't care how long it takes or where it leads me. I have decided to spend my every waking hour searching for her. When I return, I will have answers for you and Isabella Renee. I promise. Will you tell your sister what I'm saying? I want her to know I'm not abandoning you both again. I'm doing this for you."

"You're doing this for you," I corrected him with a growl, shivering with the anger I could barely keep from flaring. "How dare you? After everything you made my mother suffer, where do you think she is? In a grave, that's where! You didn't let her live in peace; at least let her rest in peace."

"Isabella Renee said you two don't know whether your mother is alive or not."

"She's naive!" I couldn't help bellowing. Emmett and Jasper edged closer to me, ready to restrain me if they needed to, but I ignored them. I could barely see them past the selfishness of Edward's plan. "Bella doesn't know anything! Do you think she's the one Jennifer told about us nearly eating our way out of our own mother? Do you think Bella knows our mother gave us to Jennifer because the government said she was too sick to be a fit parent and threatened to take us away from her? No. Bella has no clue how cruel life really is. She thinks things just magically work out, just like she thinks our mother will magically come back to us one day. It's unrealistic, but it gives Bella something to hope for. If you bring our mother back, you'll bring her back in a coffin, and you'll crush Bella."

"I think knowing the truth will benefit everyone, especially Isabella Renee. I would love it if the two of you would come with me, actually. We have a lot of catching up to do and, no matter what state in which we find your mother, the four of us should find her together. I think she would like that."

"Don't pretend to know or care about what she would like."

"Mason," Edward clenches his jaw and balls his fist, irritated with me, "I love your mother. I always have and I always will. This is the last time I will explain that to you."

"You know what? I don't care," I tell him. I can feel the bitterness callous over into apathy as the words leave my mouth. The hardened resolve settles like sediment at the bottom of my stomach. "I don't care what you do. In fact, you're the reason Mom is dead, so you should be the one to search for her. I hope you never find her. I hope you spend your entire eternity wondering where she is."

Isabella Renee

Mason came home in a storm, all brooding thunder and dark clouds. I asked him why only to have his storm come rain on me.

"Edward wants you to know he's leaving."

"Leaving?" I choke on the word, but Mason keeps making his mountain of a sandwich, not as sad as he is angry. And thirsty. I can tell all the extra meat on his sandwich is just a cover-up for the blood he really wants. "Is Edward ever coming back? Why would he leave us? We just found each other."

"Forget him. Do you want me to erase his memory for you?"

"Mason, I already told you no. Stop asking me about that."

"What's your problem?" he turns on me, but I turn away. I'm scared that if he stares at me long enough, he'll see my secret. He'll look into my mind and know all about Jacob Black, and then we'll be the ones moving. "Bella, why are you acting so weird? You've been moping around here depressed and crying and angry for no reason."

"I have my reasons."

"I'm not the problem," he reminds me, and I feel guilty. "I've only ever done what's best for you. It would be great if you could remember that sometime."

"Mason, I'm sorry. I know you're not the problem, but you're here and I'm so...I don't mean to take it out on you. I just get so..."

"You get so what?"

"I wish Mom were here. I'm serious!" I insist as he rolls his eyes and stuffs his sandwich into a plastic baggie so he can finish it at work. He works so hard. "If Mom were here, she would take care of us and you wouldn't have to work and I would know how to handle things and-"

"You can keep talking if you want, but it's only fair that I tell you I've stopped listening."

"Is someone at the door?" Jennifer asks out of nowhere, standing with one foot in the kitchen with us and one foot over the threshold of the living room. She's in two different rooms and two different worlds if her eyes are any indication. The pupils are completely gone, meaning someone or something has tickled her witchy bone.

"Did the doorbell ring?" she asks me and Mason. "Someone is here. Who is it?"

"No one," Mason tells her, but as soon as he says it the doorbell does ring. "What the...?"

I move closer to him, apprehensive. With two vampire kids and their witchy godmother living in one house, we never get visitors. Not that people don't like us or anything, but humans are naturally afraid of people like us, even if they don't know it. We never get visitors. Why would that change now?

"I'll answer it," Mason tells me and Jennifer, and leaves us to open the door. When I hear his growl of irritation, I know at once who's at the door.

"Oh, Edward, it's you," Jennifer greets our guests as we meet them in the living room. "And this must be your family?"

"Dad!" I run to him but don't touch him. I'd like to hug all the Cullens and they look like they want to hug me, too, but there's still stuff between us. We sit down together instead.

"It's a shame, Isabella Renee," Edward says, "but I didn't trust Mason to adequately bid you farewell on my behalf, so I thought I would come over and do the job myself. You've been crying," he frowns as he inspects me closer, turning my chin from left to right. "What's upset you? Is it my leaving or is it...something else?"

He hesitates and for a second I panic, thinking he must know about Jacob. But it's impossible, so I shake my head.

"There's nothing else. Why are you leaving? Don't you want to stay and get to know me and Mason?"

"All my family and I want in this whole world is to be part of yours and Mason's lives," he tells me in sincerity. He holds my hands inside his own marble-smooth and cold ones. "But, none of us can move on with our futures until we know what's happened to your mother. We're leaving to find her."

"Mason, you liar!" I stand to my feet accusing him. He brushes me off, still packing his things for work. "Mason, I know you hear me! Why did you lie to me about Dad?"

"I didn't lie. I told you he's leaving and he is."

"You didn't say he's trying to find Mom!"

"He's not going to find her."

"Why would you say that?"

"He's going to hurt you and ruin your life just like he did to Mom. Don't believe a word he says, Bella."

"Another visitor?" Jennifer looks worried when there's another ring of our doorbell, but I'm surprised she heard it past the painful ripping in my chest. I never would've thought I'd be torn between my brother and my father. Who could I trust? Who could I believe?

"Edward," Jennifer asks, "are you expecting any other members of your family?"

"No," he answers her, but his eyes are on Mason and me. He looks really hurt and extremely angry. No need to wonder where Mason gets his temper. "No, we're all accounted for. I don't know who is at your door."

"But they sound desperate," Edward's mom (I don't remember her name anymore) remarks warily. Edward's father has to take her hand to calm her down, and it strikes me yet again how weirdly young they seem. Does it have something to do with being vampires? Will Mason and I stop aging one day? "I hope there isn't some emergency."

"Me, too," Jennifer nods, looking worried. "I haven't had this much company in years. I'm almost afraid to let anyone else in. The clouds spelled doom for me when I read them this morning."

"Then let me answer it," I tell her, and walking toward the door I feel like I'm walking away from the problem of Mason and Edward. The charade feels good. "I always have good luck," I say, reaching for the door handle, and just as I am about to greet our guest, my eyes take him in and my mouth goes completely dry.

"Jacob Black?" I say his name without even realizing it, without hearing myself make a sound. But it is Jacob Black leaning with one arm on the door post and one arm clutching what looks like a letter. Gray shirt and dark jeans, he looks irresistible, but I do resist. More than thinking it weird he's discovered where I live, I remember the way he treated me yesterday. I want to be near him, but I want an apology even more.

There's just one problem.

"Now really isn't a good time," I try to tell him and close the door behind me a little to hide him from full view of my family, but he puts a finger to my lips, silencing me before I can explain why.

"Hear me out. Okay?"

With him touching my lips, I can hardly respond, so I nod instead, trying to look calm when every inch of my skin is awake.

"I'm sorry for the way I spoke to you yesterday. I hurt you and it wasn't fair. All the things I said to you were meant for someone else."

"The other Isabella?"

He swallows. Hard.

"Yeah, her. The other Isabella. I...I wrote this for you," he hands me the letter but doesn't meet my eyes. "You can read it or throw it out; you can believe it or say I'm crazy, but I swear to you that every single word I've written is the truth, including the part where I tell you that you're the last person in this entire world I would ever want to hurt. I can't tell you how much you mean to me or even why, but I hope that..." he swallows again, choking down the thing inside of him desperate to get out. "I hope that what I can tell you in this letter will give you the explanation you deserve, and I hope that after you read it, you can forgive me."

"Jacob, I do forgive you. I forgive you right now. Come inside? This isn't the best timing, but I want to talk to you. I just need to settle some things first. Guys?" I call as I step back into the house, this time dragging Jacob Black by one hand behind me. "Everybody? Guys, I want you to meet Jacob Black. He's my...well we're...we're good friends. Right Jacob?"

I look to him for assurance, but he doesn't give me any. The expression on his face isn't one of certainty, but one of deep pain and rage and shock all fighting for control of him.

"Jacob?"

I touch him hesitantly, trying to bring him back to the present with me, but it's useless. Wherever he is, I can't follow, so I turn to my family instead, hoping they can dissolve the awkwardness of the moment. To my surprise, though, they're all wearing the same expressions as Jacob.

For starters, all of the Cullens are standing now in an impassable and threatening wall behind Edward. Edward himself, however, is a different story completely. He's furious. I can see it in the tightness of his fists, in the tightness of his jaw, in the lack of restraint flashing like lightening in his eyes less yellow and more red now. He's growling, too. It's low, barely audible, but I can hear it; a guttural, blood-thirsty sound each of the Cullens began to mimic one by one.

Out of some instinct I can't name, my hand flies to Jacobs, holding him tightly, in solidarity, but that only makes everything worse. My wordless confession of what Jacob means to me sends Edward rushing toward us so that Jacob flings me backward, away from the collision and into Mason's arms by the time Edward's fist crashes into Jacob's face and Jacob's massive hand has slashed Edward across his shoulder. It's the same shoulder Mason tore, and the retouching of the old wound stops Edward cold, grimacing.

I'm glad he's hurt. The pain is the only thing stopping him, not my cries pleading with him not to hurt Jacob. As shocked by the situation as I am, Mason isn't in the headspace to strong arm me, so I break free of his hold. I run to Jacob's side where he stands heaving with adrenaline and jerking, jerking involuntarily. At times, his teeth seem longer. At times, hair sprouts up from his skin, long and brown and thick. At times, his hands look like paws...

"What is wrong with you?" I ask him, half meaning his attack on my father and half meaning the transformation he seemed to be fighting. "What...what are you? Jacob?"

"He's a wolf," Jennifer is the one to answer me. There are tears running down her cheeks and still more in her eyes, but they're not sad tears. They're angry tears. I can tell because of the hard line her mouth has settled into.

"Jennifer?"

"He's a wolf," she says again. "Jacob Black is a wolf."

"Wait, how do you know? Do you...have you two met before?"

"Isabella Renee," Edward speaks now, "how do you know him? What has he done to you?"

"He hasn't done anything to me! I told you, we're friends."

"The way he spoke to you on the porch did not sound like friendship!"

"Don't shout at my sister!" Mason came to my rescue, standing between me and Edward. "Everybody, calm down and just explain what this is about. Starting with you, Jennifer."

"No, Mason, please, not me," she begs, shaking her head and wringing her hands. "Please, don't make me be the one to say it."

"I don't trust the Cullens; I trust you. If there's something I need to know, I want to hear it from you. What's wrong with this guy?" Mason point to Jacob and Jacob shrinks back. I shrink back with him. "Who is he? Why are you so pissed to see him? And you," he turns on me now, expression hard as steel. "How long have you been seeing him behind our backs?"

"Where's Bella? Answer me! What have you done to her?"

"I'm right here," I tell Edward, confused beyond words when he puts the question to Jacob, but Jacob isn't. He swallows again, tries to gain control of himself.

"He isn't talking about you," he tells me. "He's talking about another Bella I used to know. He's talking about your mother."

"My mother? No, that's not possible. You don't know my mother. You can't know my mother! She's gone and you're too young."

"He's not so young," Jennifer cuts in. "In fact, he's my age only as a Shape Shifter, he gets a longer life than the rest of us."

"Jacob?" I can't stop staring at him. With my eyes, I beg him to tell me the impossible story unfolding about him is a lie in every detail. He does not. With my hands I reach out to him. If he would just touch me, I wouldn't have to hear another word. If would just touch me, there would be no one else in this room but the two of us. "Jacob, please say something."

"Go on, tell her!" Edward bellows, beside himself with rage and anguish. "Tell her that you are thirty-two years old. Tell her that you knew her mother, that you knew Bella. Tell her what you did to her mother!"

"I did nothing but love her," Jacob finally speaks, but it breaks my heart; shatters it into a thousand irretrievable pieces. The other Isabella he talked of yesterday was my mother? He's a shape shifting wolf? He's thirty-two years old? My head is spinning. I can't breathe. I put a hand to my chest and another on the wall to steady myself. This can't be happening. Why was this happening?

"I loved Bella with all that I had, and I never hurt her," Jacob continues. "I took care of her when you left her. I did what you didn't have the balls to do!"

"And now that she's gone you've taken hold of her daughter?" one of Edward's sisters, the blond one, asks disgustedly. "You stay away from my niece, do you understand, Dog? I will skin you alive. I don't care what it takes!"

"Do whatever you want, but you'll never separate me from Bella Renee. We have an unbreakable bond."

"The laws of nature separate you from each other," Jennifer speaks now and this time she looks directly at me. I know her words are aimed at me. "This relationship is an abomination, not only because it involves a werewolf and a vampire, but also because it involves a godfather and his goddaughter. Or have you forgotten, Jacob, the promise we made to Bella?"

My head is spinning. My vision is swimming. For a second I think the floor is rising to meet me, but then I feel my head thud against the floorboard and I hear someone scream. Someone shakes me, but I don't want to wake up. I never want to wake up again.


	10. Chapter 10

When You Love Someone

Chapter 10

Mason

"How are you?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Bella Renee tells me. Her eyes are closed but tears have been creeping out of them for all of the three hours we've been driving, tailing the Cullen car on our way to Forks, Washington. They drive really fast, and maybe that's why someone tampered with my car, putting a new engine inside. I'm driving faster than I have ever been able to, faster than I should be able to since mine and Bella's sixteenth birthday isn't for another month.

I'm only going on this doomed hunt for my mother because Bella wants to. That's it. I don't want to spend any time with the Cullens, and I definitely don't want to get to know Edward any more than I already do, but Bella couldn't stay in Maine after the blow up with that Jacob guy...our godfather.

Just thinking about it makes me sick, makes me want to find the guy and tear him apart, especially when I remember how things ended...

(Flashback)

"You're supposed to be dead," Jennifer said to Jacob, stabbing him with her eyes. "Why aren't you dead? Why did you lie?"

"I didn't lie," Jacob responds past the swelling in his face from Edward's punch. "I did die. Some vampire named Victoria came to Forks to kill Bella, but I wasn't about to let that happen. I took the fall, only something happened...something weird."

"Weird like what?"

"I woke up. That's the best way I can explain it," Jacob shrugged. "I woke up like I'd only been sleeping. I rolled out of my coffin right in the middle of my funeral. It was...crazy. Later, Bella told me she'd had something to do with it, but she wouldn't tell me what."

"That's not possible," Carlisle refuted but sounded like he was trying to convince himself. And failed. "Bella is only a human. She isn't capable of resurrecting someone."

"I only know what she told me," Jacob defended his story with his hands raised in honesty. "She said she did something to bring me back, but she was ashamed of it. It wasn't until the twins were born that I realized the seriousness of what she meant. I imprinted on Bella Renee."

"You filthy dog!"

"How dare you?"

"Give me one good reason not to rip out your throat."

Insults flew after Jacob's announcement; insults and death threats and curses. Jennifer left the room, too angry to stay in one place any longer. It was only Isabella Renee's gentle question that brought a semblance of calm back into the room.

"What does Imprint mean?"

She looked to Jacob, so he answered her.

"Because of what I am," he explained, "I can Imprint, which means that I become bound to a certain person for the rest of my life."

"So that's what it is," Isabella Renee blinked in wide-eyed realization. "That's why I always want to be near you. You imprinted on me. But if you're my mother's friend and my...my godfather...why would you do something like this?"

"I can't control it. Believe me, I wouldn't have chosen this for any of us."

"What does Bella have to do with any of this?" Edward returned the conversation to the point he cared about most. "Why are you blaming her for what you've done?"

"Weren't you listening?" Jacob growled. "She brought me back to life. I don't know much about magic, but I'm guessing you have to have life to give life."

"What do you mean?"

"Bella brought me back to life because, somehow, she gave me some of Isabella Renee's life."

"What do you mean?" Edward asked again, this time through the bars of his clenched teeth and this time on the edge of his chair. "What do you mean she gave you some of my daughter's life?"

"My life is Isabella Renee's life, and Isabella Renee's life is my life. It saved me, but, unfortunately, that's the definition of an Imprint. Technically, Bella made me Imprint on Isabella Renee by tying us together."

"Take that back! Don't you ever say that any of us did this!"

"Edward, calm down," Carlisle put a hand on his shoulder, the good one. "Son, please. Getting angry won't solve anything now."

"I don't believe you," Edward spat at Jacob. "I don't believe a word of this. Bella would never tie our daughter to you, Mongrel! If she did, then why did she leave you? What happened between you that made her hide our children from you?"

"Okay," Jacob admitted, swallowing his pride, "you're right about that. At first, Bella just felt guilty for using some of her daughter's life to save mine, but when she found out that meant I had to imprint on Isabella Renee, she got mad. She got scared, and she left me."

"What was she doing with you in the first place?" Rosalie hissed menacingly. "You couldn't wait for Edward to get out of your way. Even when she was pregnant with his babies you still couldn't stay away from her!"

"I took care of her," Jacob retorted. "Can any of you say that? She needed you but none of you were anywhere to be found. I was there! I loved her more than any of you, and I would have never hurt her. I didn't choose this life; she chose it for me."

"How old were the twins when she left you?" Edward asked, rubbing his temples from the weight of it all.

"Two," Jacob answered and darted a quick, guilty glance at Isabella Renee. "She left the day after their second birthday."

"Jennifer said the year after the twins turned one neither she nor you had any idea where Bella was. Are you trying to say Jennifer lied to me?"

"I'm saying I lied to Jennifer. I knew exactly where Bella was-with me, but she didn't want Jennifer to know that. Jennifer has never approved of me."

"And neither have I. So, for the first two years of their lives, the twins and Bella were with you. When they were four, they came to live with Jennifer. That leaves two years unaccounted for."

"I can't help you."

"You will help me!" Edward grabbed Jacob by the throat, but Carlisle and Emmett pried him off, calmed him down. "You will tell me everything you know! Where did Bella go when she left you?"

"When you ran away from Bella, did you tell her where you were going? It kind of defeats the purpose, doesn't it? She didn't tell me anything."

"What was the last thing you ever heard about her? Where was the last place you heard she'd been?"

Jacob was quiet for what felt like forever. He tried to decide what to say, how to say it, whether he should say it at all. Then he began, slowly and determinedly, staring at his hands.

"Eleven years ago, I got a call from Jennifer. She told me Bella had just given her sole custody of the twins, and she wanted to know why Bella didn't want me to see them anymore. I told her it was none of her business. She told me whatever issues I had with Bella, I needed to settle them because she didn't foresee Bella living more than one more year.

"I hung up on her. I didn't want to hear that. I didn't want to believe it, but a week later during the middle of the night, I had a knock on my door. It was Bella, Bella like I'd never seen her before," he sighed and hung his head a little, hurting over the memory. "She was skin and bones. She didn't look like she had an ounce of blood left in her, and all of her hair...it was gone. She'd had to cut it so short because of her treatments, she told me, but she was tired of treatments. She didn't want to die full of chemicals in some hospital, but she didn't want to die alone, either, and she didn't want to die in front of her kids. She asked me if she could die with me, in my house right there. I didn't want to be responsible for that, but how could I say no to her? She had given me life even though she'd had to sacrifice her own daughter to do it. I couldn't say no to her, so I held her and she died. She died in my arms that same night.

"My pack and I, we buried her in the forest and as close to Charlie's house as we could, knowing we could never tell him. We could never tell anyone, so we tried to move on. We tried to forget it; forget we ever met the Cullens, forget we ever knew Bella, and forget about the twins. Eleven years passed and we were nearly there. We had almost completely forgotten. Then, three days ago, I felt someone in my house. I think it was her. It didn't smell like her, but I thought it looked like her...only different somehow. Not human and not vampire but something...different. No one believes me, but I swear it was her. She was in my house in Forks carrying some weird-looking knife. She went to Seth's room, and when I tried to make her leave, she stabbed me. She tried to kill me like she didn't know who I was. I left town to get away from her. I don't know what's going on, but if she's attacking the pack, they will deal with her, and if it really is Bella, I can't. I can't hurt her.

"You want to know the last time I saw Bella? I'm supposed to say it was the night I buried her eleven years ago, but I don't really think that. I think it was three nights ago when she broke into my house and tried to kill me and my brother."

(End of Flashback)

Not only did Jacob know our mother, but he had watched her die and never thought to tell Bella and me, his friggin godchildren! He kept my mother's death a secret and then tried to get with my sister despite it being obviously gross and illegal! On top of it all, he imprinted or whatever on Bella, which is why she wasn't angry right now. She was hurt. Her feelings were hurt because she actually cared about this guy, even after everything he'd done, including possibly seeing our mother miraculously alive again yet refusing to tell us until Edward had beat it out of him.

At least Edward is proving to be good at something. I still hate him, but now I hate Jacob even more.

"Believe it or not, we're nearly there," I tell Bella Renee, kind of stoked at the progress. "This new engine is beastly. We're covering so many miles, I wouldn't be surprised if we hit Washington in the next few two hours."

"Fine," Bella Renee says, still crying with her eyes closed. "Good. That's great."

"Bell..."

"No, really, it's great. I can't wait to see Mom. I could really use a mom right now."

"Even though she used your life to bring back Jacob? Even though she bonded you to that creep forever?"

"Don't talk about Jacob like that."

"You mean our godfather?"

"Stop. This is why I don't want to talk about it with you. You don't understand, but Mom will."

"You really think we're going to find her, don't you?"

"Jacob said he saw her."

"He said he thought he saw her. He also said she died and he buried her. Bell, think about it. If Mom really is alive, do you really think she would rather be in a town called Forks than with you, me, and Jennifer? If Mom were alive, she would've told us...and she hasn't."

"If you don't believe it, then why are you here? Why would you come with me if you're just going to be a cynic?"

"You'll see."

That makes her quiet, makes her realize that in the haze of her emotions, she missed something with me.

"Mason, what are you planning?"

"You'll see."

"We promised we'd never keep secrets."

"That was before Edward Cullen and Jacob Black."


	11. Chapter 11

When You Love Someone

Chapter 11

Edward

Charlie Swan is glad to see Mason and Bella Renee. He welcomes them into his home as if he's been expecting them, and soon I realize that he has, indeed, been expecting them. Mason must have planned this. I'm torn between being glad my children have a calm, normal home to live in until we get this business with their mother settled, and being angry that, once again, Mason has put distance between my family and the twins. After all, enough time has not gone by since the Cullens left Forks; we can't show our faces. Our return must be a complete secret, meaning we can't be seen in public with the twins. All the more reason for me to wish the twins had chosen to live with us instead so we could have them to ourselves without needing to be careful.

"But this is best," I tell myself as I watch the three sit down for dinner.

It's best for them to be here with Charlie in the house where their mother once lived than to be caught up in the craziness of my family and I as we work on plans to interrogate the wolves. According to Alice's visions, our plans won't end very well, anyway.

I spy on the twins for hours, watching from my hiding place in the darkness of the tree boughs as Mason prepares himself and Bella Renee for their first day of school tomorrow. He packs their bags, their lunches, and puts a tattered copy of _Sense and Sensibility_ in Bella Renee's backpack. He loves his sister. The realization of this makes me see him in an entirely different way, makes me appreciate him and feel proud of him. All these hard years, my son has looked after his sister, meeting her every need and being everything their mother and I haven't been. No wonder he hates me; I've done nothing for Bella Renee. I've done nothing for Mason.

"I will fix this," I vow to him as he texts a goodnight wish to Bella Renee.

I wait until he's securely in his bed and snoring before gathering the courage to make my next move.

Isabella Renee

Edward Cullen is tapping on the bedroom window.

It takes me a full two minutes of thinking this and staring at him before I fully grasp the situation. But once I do, I run to unhook the latch and he easily steps through.

"What?" he asks when he catches me staring.

"Nothing," I reply. "Only, you don't seem to be new at this. Do you use windows often?"

"Ah," Edward laughs half in amusement and half in shame. "I once used this window very often. Fifteen years ago, this was your mother's room."

"I knew it," I breathe and take in the space around me, every detail and especially the rocking chair I feel oddly connected to. "I knew she must have spent time here. I can feel her presence in this room. Is that weird?"

"I don't think so. Wherever your mother went, she left a mark. Who knows? Maybe she wanted you and Mason to come back here one day."

"If I can feel her spirit, do you think that means she's dead?"

"I think," Edward says slowly, carefully, "we should remain open to all of the possibilities and refuse to be discouraged no matter what. Here," he passes me a sheet of paper folded into fourths. "Those are directions to my house. You and Mason are welcome to visit anytime you like."

"Thank you."

"Your aunt Alice also wrote down our cell numbers. Call me whenever, for rides to school or for...anything. I would do anything for you and your brother. Do you believe me?"

"I believe you Daddy," I say, and watch his face soften in places I didn't even realized were tense. It looks like he's taking the first breath of his life, and then, I take mine as he hugs me closer and tighter than anyone who isn't my parent ever has. I realize that all the hugs I've ever gotten until this point have been poor excuses for this one. Now, there's just one other hug I need.

"Daddy, when are you going to look for Mom? I want to come with you."

"No," he immediately shakes his head. "Mason was right in doing this for you, bringing you to Charlie and putting you two in school. You need to go about life as normally as possible. You shouldn't be involved in this."

"I shouldn't be involved in finding my own mother?"

"You shouldn't be involved in what it will take to find your mother," he clarifies. "I promise to tell you of anything we find out. Until then, go to school, make friends, and be good."

"After school, I'm coming to your house and you will take me to...to Jacob's wolf pack," I say trying to sound firm, but my voice quivers on Jacob's name, ruining the attempt and making Edward frown. He's still angry over the way things ended in Maine.

"Get some sleep, Isabella."

"Will you stay with me? I have this memory of you singing to Mom before Mason and I were born. Will you sing to me now, Daddy?"

He smiles and it's luminous, but it isn't exactly happy, either. It makes me see for the first time the regret he's been talking about, trying to get me and Mason to understand. It makes me believe that he's sorry.

He walks away from the window and settles into the rocking chair. When he's comfortable, he holds out his arms to me.

"Come here, my Darling."

I run, not walk, and I don't use my human speed, either. I'm in Edward's arms in under a second, and he snuggles me to his chest, rocking me gently. So quietly I almost mistake it for the wind, he starts humming a soft, lilting song I've never heard before. Like magic, my eyelids get heavy. I can feel my head lolling against helplessly against his shoulder, and I can feel my lips parting. I'm slipping into sleep. I'm almost completely submerged in it when, out of nowhere, Edward stops humming and gently, almost fearfully, touches my cheek with the tips of his fingers. With my last grip on the waking world, I think I hear him say, "I love you, my daughter...my beautiful daughter."

I can feel an empty place in my heart fill up at last.


	12. Chapter 12

When You Love Someone

Chapter 12

Jasper

We know the second the wolves catch our scent. One by one, they let out howls of alarm that reverberate in the air and get caught in the wind, making the cry sound hollow and haunting.

For a second, I feel a surge of excitement to rip flesh and taste blood. For a second, I feel like my old self, the self I was before Alice found me and changed my life, so I shake my head to clear it. I stuff the feelings down the way I've been learning to do for decades now, and Alice smiles at me, knowing my struggle and proud of how far I've come.

Her praise isn't enough for me, though. No one knows, but I will never be proud of myself until I can be in the same room as Bella Swan again without wanting to hurt her. My lapse all those years ago has torn my self-esteem to shreds, and I'd leap at the chance to fix that. So, because I have my own reasons, my place here with my family on the edge of the Quileute reservation isn't entirely selfless, but it's where I need to be.

We tighten our ranks as the wolves come into view, appearing like magic out of the heavy fog across the gorge separating us. Surprisingly, none of them are actually in their wolf forms, but, then again, why would they be? We promised to never go on their land. They're protected.

"You dare come here?" the leader, Sam I think his name is, asks us incredulously, as if we must be stupid, but I can sense his emotions. I know he's drained emotionally and physically. He and his pack are sleepless and scared. No, terrified. I send the message to Edward and he meets my eyes, understanding immediately.

"What do you want?" Sam demands, and Carlisle answers.

"We've met Jacob Black in Maine."

"Jacob?" Jacob's sister can't help but say his name. Sam glares at her, though, and she quiets down, remembers her place in the pack.

"So what?" Sam asks. "We don't care who you saw."

"I could make you care," Emmett growls, as ready for fun as I am, but Carlisle is quick to restrain him.

"It's alright, Emmett. Jacob tells us Bella Swan is among you. May we speak to her?"

Collectively, their fear rises, flares so much I'm almost surprised I'm the only one who can see it.

"Bella Swan is dead. You're too late to speak to her."

"Have you..." Edward begins but has to work to finish it.. "Have you killed her?"

"You killed her," Sam corrects in disgust. "You and your poison. You ruined that girl."

"Jacob says she's back," Carlisle brings the conversation back to its focus, "back from the dead. He says she's been terrorizing your pack."

"He's lying."

"Then why are you all so obviously worn down with fatigue? You forget, I am a physician. I see the signs clearly. You haven't slept in days. Why else if not because Bella Swan is haunting you, come back to torment you?"

"Mind your own business! You have no right to come here asking questions! Whoever my pack and I are dealing with is our business, and, rest assured, Bloodsucker, we will make it our business to destroy this enemy."

"Don't touch her!" Edward can't help but scream, himself afraid now; afraid to hope Bella may really be alive...or living dead, rather...and afraid to lose her to the wolves if she is. I send him waves of reassurance, but he shakes them away. He wants to feel it all. "I swear, if Bella is back and you hurt her, I will end you. All of you!"

"You forget, Bloodsucker, our enemy is on our land, land you are forbidden to enter. You break our treaty, and it will be us who ends you."

"Not before I end you first!" Emmett promises with a growl.

Sam and his pack growl back.

"Please," Carlisle tries appealing to the dog's reason, "whatever Bella Swan has become now, whatever she has done, she still deserves fairness. In the name of the love you used to have for her, please, spare her. Give her to us."

"Whoever we're dealing with isn't Bella Swan."

"How do you know?"

"Well, for starters, Bella Swan is dead! Weren't you listening? No one comes back from the dead. Well, no human, anyway. Second, this woman...this creature we're dealing with is not human, not even slightly. She's fast, really fast, and indestructible."

"She's a vampire?"

"No, she smells nothing like you. She smells like death, pure death. She looks like it, too; white as snow and her body seems made of ice it's so hard and cold."

"Like a vampire."

"She's not a vampire!" Sam bellows, clearly agitated since he himself is just as confused as us. "She's nothing like you. You we can kill. Easily. But this woman? Nothing we do hurts her...like a dead person. She's burned our homes, stabbed us. She seems bent on destroying us but we don't know why. When we ask, she doesn't respond, acts like she can't hear us or understand us. This isn't Bella Swan. Bella Swan would never do anything like this anyway. This woman is some dark creature, and we are going to find a way to kill her. We have no choice."

"Alright," Carlisle cedes. "Please just answer me two final questions and then I will go."

"Make it quick."

"Is it true that Bella Swan's grave is empty?"

All of the wolves tense at that, the thing they fear most and dare not speak out in the open like this.

"Is it true?" Carlisle repeats. "Is the grave you dug for Bella Swan empty?"

"Yes," Sam ground out. "It's empty."

"So, then, will you agree with me that, whether or not the woman you fight now is Bella Swan or not, without any other explanation, it is only reasonable to conclude that Bella Swan is not dead? Will you agree with me?"

"No," Sam kept his stubborn stance. "No, I will not agree! Stop spreading your poisonous lies! You're ruining that girl's innocent name!"

"We will leave you now," Carlisle announces, giving us the signal to retreat. "And Sam? Despite what you think of me, I hope for your sake and the sake of your pack that you are not wrong."

"Is that a threat?"

"Believe it or not, it's a prayer," and the look on Carlisle's face is one of pure piety, the look he might have worn in his first lifetime as a holy man of faith. "If Bella Swan truly is alive, and the last thing she knew in this life was what Jacob Black, a member of your pack, did to her only daughter, then I fear for you. I fear for you all."

"You really think Bella would hurt those people?" Esme asks Carlisle as we walked away, and then remembered to add, "If she's alive, that is?"

"Of course I don't think that!" Carlisle responds and looks as if he might laugh. Actually, I feel a bubble of humor welling inside of him. It made us all stop in the middle of the forest to study him and his smug grin. "Bella wouldn't hurt a fly in this life or the next, and we all know that! I only said what I said to give the wolves something to think about. They're already afraid. Now, driven mad by fear, they will reexamine if it's such a horrible idea to help us after all."

"Carlisle, you sly devil you!" Emmett guffaws, clapping our father on his back. "Who would've thought you could sink so low? I'm so proud!"

"But Carlisle, what do you really think?" Edward asks, and we all shut up. His pained expression reminds us that for him this is a lot more than a game of wills; this is a journey to decide the rest of his eternity and whether his children will ever have a mother again. The shame everyone feels at having forgotten funnels into me in a rush. "Carlisle, do you really think Bella is alive or not?"

"We will visit the grave site tonight under cover of deepest darkness. The wolves say the grave is empty, but there might be some clues as to why that may only be detected by our finer senses."

Everyone agrees but Alice. She doesn't mention it, though. She merely takes my hand in hers, squeezing too hard while she tries desperately to think things through.

"Alice?"

"This isn't a good idea," she says to me in a whisper no one will overhear.

"What do you mean? Did you have a vision?"

"I've had pieces of visions, nothing solid. It's like...it's like someone is blocking me from my own gift."

"No one can do that, Alice. Well, maybe Aro can, but he is nowhere near us. You're just getting carried away. I understand. This whole business is really...heavy."

"This whole business is wrong! Bella wouldn't want to spend the last seconds of her life with Jacob; she would've wanted to spend them with her kids. So why did she go to Jacob? It's wrong. It doesn't fit. And, she died as a human; why then did the wolves hide her death from her parents, especially if she was already so sick? They wouldn't have needed to lie about why she died, but they did. It's wrong, Jasper! It's all wrong. None of the pieces fit. Don't you see?"

I do see now that she's pointed it out, but the implications scare me. I'm afraid of where this road leads and afraid of what Edward would do if he could see what Alice sees.

"Jasper, you have to believe me. Whatever has happened to Bella, whether she's alive or dead, it isn't good and it isn't right. When you go visit her grave tonight promise me you will be careful."

"I promise."

I don't have Alice's gift to see the future, but I know right here and right now that we're in trouble. We're all in big, inescapable trouble."


End file.
